On Day 2 of our Twenty Mile adventure, Tom and I awoke to some amazing weather. Yesterday’s misty rain was now a long gone memory. Today we planned a good stroll over the ridge and up and down the mountains. Turned out I shot a bunch of fun images so I broke this day into two blogs. I present Part 1!
First up on today’s adventure is a climb of Storm Peak. Funny, the climb was a lot tougher than it looked to be from this lake.
Once we hit the ridge there were views down the Loon Creek Drainage. The wet weather over the last couple of days left a fog bank over Loon Lake.
To me this is one of the best views in the Payette National Forest. Storm Dome as seen from Storm Peak. Behind Storm Dome is South Loon Peak and many of John’s favorite mountains in the Lick Creek Drainage.
Looking eastish from the summit of Storm Peak. Notice the dark peak, that is Victor Peak. In the distance are the ridges of the Frank Church Wilderness. Next up, we are headed across the flatfish basin to the saddle mid image left.
The Peaks of the Payette National Forest looking south.
As we made our way east to the saddle over the Victor Creek Basin, these old snags were everywhere.
Looking back to Storm Dome.
After a fairly straight forward traverse we reach the saddle over Victor Creek. What a glorious day!
We decided to head over to the base of Storm Dome.
Time for lunch at Storm Peak Lake.
This is one of the more spectacular lakes in the Payette National Forest, it is a bugger to get to.
Just adjacent to Storm Peak Lake is this little frog pond. In the distance, that is North Loon Peak.
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s report when we bump back over the ridge to the right and return to the Twenty Mile Basin.
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